Ulitharid Savant

some extra character options in case you want to add more explicitly Christian elements to your Pathfinder games, largely focusing on the branches of Apostolic Christianity (Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Coptic Christianity and so on), though options for other denominations are available in the Feats section. Also includes angels and demons, and a new "prayer" skill.

A water main in my area broke. So yeah we don't have water. And neither does our neighborhood. And probably more people in the area.

And we won't have water until it gets fixed. That could be in a couple of hours, it could be tomorrow. Hopefully it's not any longer than that.

SO YOU KNOW HOW VEN WAS FOUND WITH A VIAL OF ODD LIQUID IN IT RIGHT? AND HOW HE MADE IT INTO A NECKLACE SO HE CAN KEEP IT AROUND AND HOW ITS ACTUALLY FULL OF ELDER BRAIN FLUID??? AND HOW BOTH VEN AND CERE FIND IT COMFORTING?

WELL LOOK AT THIS

also, we don't properly have a "hivemind". every illithid has free will; the Elder Brain no more controls our thoughts and actions any more than a politician or preacher does with humans. we hold the elder brains in high regard because they are ancient, and contain the memories of countless generations of illithids who have had their brains consumed by it. any illusion of a hivemind is simply the result of use relaying information through the Elder Brain.

An Urophion on one side of the settlement may spot an approaching enemy and send a signal to the Elder Brain, since the Elder Brain has the longest telepathic range out of all of us, and then the information is either relayed to everyone and a vote is made as to the course of action, or if it is urgent the message is sent to me and i make the decision, since as an Ulitharid and a Savant I have both superior processing and a wider range of skills than most other Illithids, and as such often take the lead in military operations. then orders are relayed outwards, and most members comply, simply because it is in our best interests to do so and we aren't as affected by those messy emotions than lesser beings hold in such high regard. those who don't comply are treated in much the same way that you humans treat a coward or turncoat, because that's exactly what such a being is, but he is not necessarily disciplined for this infraction; at worst he is exiled.

it somehow manages to be both grossly ethnocentric in it’s embrace of western values while at the same time completely dismissive of the culture that those values sprung from. it is unabashed worship of modernism, a philosophy that died 2 decades ago because of how shallow and meaningless it was (only to be replaced with post-modernism which is arguably worse). with the notable exception of the inclusion of the Ferengi there seems to be no real effort to question or critique the philosophy, or even add a little nuance to it. it never makes any attempt to address the societal ills that resulted from modernism and secularism. it is the storytelling equivalent of drinking mayonnaise.

I have so much trouble enjoying science fiction and historical fiction nowadays. My stupid college education is getting in the way. things that go through my head:

-no, you can’t harvest zero-point energy from a vacuum; you need an energy gradient to do that.

-wormholes are supposed to be spheres

-no, aliens did not build the pyramids for goodness sake

-no, the church did not declare science heretical in the middle ages

-why is the middle east just a big desert in this?

-if you converted somebody’s body into energy to teleport them, you would literally just be killing and cloning them; not to mention that you would essentially be turning them into a nuclear bomb. Also, perfectly recording that information is basically impossible because of the uncertainty principle

-while on the topic of star trek, I feel like that franchise takes the prize for “the most hilariously unrealistic and over-optimistic depiction of a space-faring civilization in fiction”.

-why is everyone breaking formation in this medieval battlefield? and where are all the pikes?

-that… is not how people dressed back then in that region.

-no, hyperspace isn’t white

-just… everything about “pym particles” and the “quantum realm” in marvel

-*sigh* no, the inquisition was not burning witches in the middle ages.

-stop calling it the dark ages, I BEG you

-nobody takes conservation of mass seriously

-no, making objects and creatures out of “pure energy” isn’t a thing

These are the rulebooks you will need:

(I left out the Cathay sourcebook since it is widely considered to be garbage by the community, and it’s contribution to the lore makes no sense)

There are some supplemental online articles as well:

And since it is adapted from the Role and Keep system, a lot of the necessary lore will be inside their older books (non-d20 compatible), which I suggest picking up anyway:

(a lot of people didn’t like the Daughters of Sophia book, but I included it because OH BOY IS IT NECESSARY TO UNDERSTAND THE LORE)

I have only a cross-section of the edited image:

but I have the full version of the original image which I made back in my senior year of high school with adobe illustrator: